The ends of copper pipe are usually cleaned manually with an abrasive such as steel wool or emery cloth. The abrasive is held in contact with the surface to be cleaned with one hand, and the other hand oscillates the pipe back and forth about the central axis. This is a slow process, and can strain hand and arm muscles.
The ends of copper pipe have been cleaned by wire brushes on the spindles of electric grinders to reduce muscle strain and save time. These wire brush cleaners are difficult to control. Some areas are not adequately cleaned while excess material is removed from other areas. Joints that leak or that are weakened result from cleaning with rotating wire brushes.
Power tools that employ emery cloth belts have also been employed. These belts tend to have a short life because their abrasive surfaces will fill with metal particles, and they stop cleaning and polishing. Short belt life tends to make these power tools expensive to operate. Vibrations due to the serpentine belt path is another problem with these power tools. The vibrations damage the tool, the electric drill that drives the tool, and tire the operator.
A pipe that has been cut by a pipe cutter with two rollers and a cutter disk have ends with a reduced inside diameter and a sharp edge. Hand reamers have been used to remove the sharp edge and increase the diameter. In most cases, the inside diameter is not increased to the original inside diameter of the pipe due to the time and effort required to operate the hand reamer.
A pipe that has been cut by a saw has sharp edges and burrs that interfere with pipe joints. These burrs and sharp edge have been removed in two separate steps. A reamer or a round file have been used to remove inside burrs and sharp edges. A flat file or grinder stone has been used to remove outside burrs.
The various power tools, for cleaning the outer surface of a pipe adjacent to an end of the pipe and removing the burrs, have been unsuccessful due to the problems mentioned above and to other problems.